Right now AnimeCon.org/Chrono LC CEO Ryan Kopf (who runs Anime Midwest, Animinneapolis, Meta Con, Con Alt Delete, Yoi Con, and several other events) is suing me in the state of Illinois over articles I wrote about him on my geek news site Nerd & Tie. Please consider contributing to my legal fund so I can continue to fight this case.

I forgot to add something, I know we do it all the time but has the hotel staffs of all these hotels ever complain about their being like 12 people in a single room? Because I know on a normal occasion growing up in a 7 person family that hotels cap out usually 4 or 5 people in a room so in my family’s case we always had 2 rooms because of this.

Offically, hotels don’t allow ‘extra’ people in a room, in part because it’s a safety violation. If the Fire Marshal were to catch that many people staying in a room, the hotel could get into legal trouble. Plus, having all those people stay in several rooms is more money for the hotel.

On the other hand, the hotel is generally aware that all those people wouldn’t be there if they couldn’t share, which would mean no money for the hotel. And the Convention, which gives money to the hotel, wouldn’t be happening without all those people. So hotels tend to not look too hard at how many people are actually staying in a room. But if you’re blatant about it, they can, and and sometimes will, take action.

Exactly. My con very strongly pounds a “Four people in a room!” now, but in the early days, we had 15+ people in a staff hotel room for several years running. A big ol’ suite, which meant room for everyone (I brought an inflatable bed and claimed the spot behind the minibar), but still cramped.

Most people I know keep to the 4-person limit. Pushing beyond that point gets so cramped folks don’t try it again unless there’s desperation points.

For a conference in Belgium we once rented a suite with I think six beds, for a dozen or so people to sleep there. (Plus a few more that met there in the evening, but didn’t stay for the night.) The staff was looking funny when more and more people kept arriving, but they didn’t say anything…

One of the biggest challenges in moving was relocating my workspace. I spend a lot of time in my home office, since I work from home for the "corporate America job I'll never mention on my website," use this as my recording studio, produce all mycomics from here, and do all of my Nerd & Tie stuff. It's been a while since I shared the evolution of what I refer to as my "cyberpunk" desk, so I thought I'd update you with the current iteration.

The first three photos are from 2010, 2012, and 2014 respectively, but it was a lot more complex before we left Lafayette. The "day job" system went from one to three screens recently though, so I had to scramble a bit for space. There are three main computers here, the company owned Windows 7 system, my main system (a five year old MacBook Pro), and my Linux machine. There's also a Windows 95 laptop running the clock, a Kindle Fire for streaming media while I work, and the Commodore monitor can be switched between multiple devices (including a 3DO and TV tuner). That's not to mention my iPad, the other Kindle Fire (which I use for reading), or the recording equipment.

And the mini fridge is full of Diet Coke.

I used to joke about having a "cyberpunk" desk when I only had three screens going, but that just seems so quaint nowadays. I used to say I'd never have enough screens -- but guess what? I kind of think I do now.

Note: While it’s true that many things are based on actual events, the characters contained within this strip are not meant to be direct analogs for actual people. They are not based off of people living, dead, or undead and any resemblance is coincidental. Nor are they based off of Ferrets.

Because that would be weird.

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